Hook with a fleet of two hundred and sixty-seven sail, having on board a considerable body of troops, destined for the reduction of Philadelphia. Owing to calms and adverse winds, it was the 14th Aug. before his Lordship reached the Chesapeake. On the llth Sept. the Americans were defeated in a severe battle fought at Brandywine; General Washington fled to Philadelphia; but finding that he could not maintain his position there, without the hazard of a general action, abandoned that capital to its fate, and continued his retreat several miles higher up the river. A few days after, the Delaware frigate, assisted by some other armed vessels, attempted to obstruct the British troops, who were employed to erect batteries next the sea. Upon the falling of the tide, she got aground, and was taken possession of by the Roebuck; her consorts cut their cables and pushed up the river. Captain Hamond appointed his first Lieutenant to command the prize, who pursued and destroyed the whole of them, amounting to seventeen sail. Before the ships of war could proceed higher up the river, it was necessary that several machines, resembling chevaux-de-frize, which the enemy had sunk to block up the passage, should be removed. This arduous undertaking was entrusted to Captain Hamond, who, after much perseverance and great exertions, succeeded in weighing a sufficient number of them to secure a safe channel for the ships, notwithstanding he was greatly annoyed by the enemy’s floating batteries. The next object was to dislodge the Americans from the strong posts which they held at Red Bank and Mud Island. To effect this service, on the 22d Oct. the Augusta, Somerset, Isis, and Merlin, commanded by Captains Reynolds, Cornwallis, Ourry, and Reeve, were ordered to cannonade the batteries on the island; and a detachment of Hessian soldiers under Count Donop, were at the same time directed to attack the redoubt on Red Bank. The Augusta and Merlin took the ground in a situation which prevented them from firing with much effect; they however kept up a heavy cannonade, and baffled the efforts of the enemy, who sent down several fire-rafts and heavy gun-vessels to destroy them. Unfortunately, the Augusta, by some accident, took fire; and the other ships being obliged to withdraw, the Roebuck covered
